The 12th annual Boulder Jewish Film Festival features 13 films from around the world and our always popular shorts program, inviting audiences to engage in a meaningful conversation about the Jewish experience. All films this year are in the Boedecker Theater or the Grace Gamm Theater at the Dairy Arts Center. Tickets to the festival go on sale Oct. 22. Showings do sell out; purchasing early is advisable.
The festival opens on Sunday, November 10 with two screenings of a surprise hit comedy from Sundance, "A Real Pain," starring Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg - who also wrote and directed - as rancorous cousins looking for their roots in Poland.
The festival closes Sunday, November 17, with the most popular film currently on the festival circuit, "Seven Blessings." Focused on a Moroccan wedding celebration, this comic family drama concludes our three-film series exploring Sephardic life and culture.
Join us before the screening for our Sephardic-themed closing night reception, 5:30-6:30 in the Dairy Lobby.
The Centerpiece, our traditional mid-week special event, is now the Community Centerpiece, featuring a film selected by the festival's newly formed program committee. We think you are going to really enjoy "Running on Sand," a highly relevant, crowd-pleasing comedy of mistaken identity from Israel.
A good time will also be had by all at "The Catskills," a nostalgic new documentary told with flair by director Lex Gillespie, whose "Mamboniks" closed the 2019 festival. Join us for this tribute to the storied mountain getaway that served as a refuge for Jewish immigrants fleeing poverty as well as a lavish playground for affluent Jewish families.
Our guest list usually includes writers, directors, filmmakers, and actors. This year we have a major league baseball catcher joining us for a discussion following "Israel Swings for the Gold," a follow-up to “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel" (BJFF 2019). Ryan Lavarnway, who now lives in Denver, played on Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic and at the Olympics and will discuss those personally transformative experiences with the audience.